One of the things that really stuck with me in
"Out of the Silent Planet" was Dr. Ransom's initial obsession over sorns.
He pictures a Wellsian insect-like creature, ready to terrorize him. Hell, even
when he sees the first sorns coming across the water, he assumes that
those creatures are malicious sorns (I was really expecting a twist
where he was mistaken about these creatures beings sorns, and the sorns
were actually the hrossa...think about it, he never had remote
confirmation that these things were sorns. Can you imagine the freakout
Ransom would have had if the creatures he had immediately befriended were the
same sorns he has been deathly afraid of for months?).
But even before Ransom hypothesizes that "the seroni
were gods or demons...seroni might very well be the plural of sorn,"
he has vivid fantasies about being ripped apart by the sorns. Why is he
so scared of them? My thought is that Ransom is frightened because of a removal
of locus of control. Not only does Ransom have his power taken away, it is by a
new creature he has never heard of before. In fact, he is scared for the same
reason that readers are attracted to science fiction; sci-fi writers throw out
novel terms and situations to make the reader feel out of their element. This term
"sorn" given to Ransom and the reader is both of their
indoctrinations into a strange place. Lewis uses this as a literary device to
make both parties dwell on the sorns.
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